


Waterlogged

by prettycheese21



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Almost-Drowning, But when do these things ever go right?, Gen, Mission Gone Wrong, Reader-Insert, drones, random villain character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 10:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3325025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettycheese21/pseuds/prettycheese21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers team is sent to a mountain in the Appalachians to stop a not-yet potential threat.<br/>Things seem to go well; that is, until they don't.<br/>It all goes downhill as the Avengers try to save one of their own before it's too late.<br/>The question is: Will they be able to?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waterlogged

**Author's Note:**

> So all I can say about this one is: I tried.  
> I really did. I've read through this like three times and had three different people look at it. 
> 
> This one has been pending approval for a while now. After finally getting in touch with my editor, it's been edited (again) and now posted. 
> 
> I know it's not my best work, but hopefully you'll all enjoy it.  
> Please leave a kudos! I enjoy getting them, because it makes me feel like taking the time to write is worth it.  
> Anyway, enjoy!

   "Come on, (Name). Breathe!" Steve said under his breath, pushing down again on the woman's chest. He'd been performing the supposed life-saving act of CPR since they'd pulled her out of the icy water five minutes ago. Those five minutes seemed to stretch on forever.  
  
   Tony had long since opened his faceplate and was looking on with a tight lipped frown. He appeared to be holding back tears, as his eyes were slightly glassy. Bruce, who had since transformed back from his giant form, was anxiously observing, counting the minutes in his head that she's gone without oxygen and calculating how long she has until she becomes permanently brain damaged. Natasha was looking on with a blank, yet tight face. Almost as if she were trying to maintain control over her emotions. Thor simply stood there with a saddened expression on his face. He'd had nothing to say or express other than sadness and concern for his friend. Clint was watching with stiff body language. The events that had led up to this had left him feeling like it was all his fault.  
  
   What had happened was something that could have easily been prevented, in Clint's mind that is. After tracking a villain to a forested area in the Appalachian mountains, the Avengers headed out to neutralize the threat before it could actually become a threat. The threat, a man who's tinkering had become much more than a hobby, had created a small set of drones, one for each of the Avengers. Though, thankfully, they were just the prototypes and weren't the finished products, as that would have caused more problems.  
  
   As soon as the group had flown to the location, courtesy of Tony, up the mountain side, they were immediately ambushed by drones. They sprung into action, splitting up to do separate tasks. Tony, Thor, (Name) and Clint began trying to take out the drones, each with their preferred weapons of choice; Clint with his arrows, Thor with his hammer, (Name) with her guns, and Tony with his repulsors. While they did this, Natasha and Steve were going after the man behind the machines.  
  
   The fight didn't last long, a half hour at most. Steve and Natasha neutralized the threat with relative ease, allowing Tony to bring him down to ground level for SHIELD to retrieve him. They had taken out six of the seven drones, but the other one was nowhere to be found. This left the others to work on taking out the remaining drone. The others had started to disperse some, some wandering away from the mouth of the cave and out to the sides by the cliffs. Clint was one of those wandering people. He had an arrow notched, ready to fire at a moment's notice, looking around with his sharp vision for the missing drone.  
  
   He heard a whirring from behind him that sounded too close for comfort. Before he could turn around to investigate, he was pushed out of the way with the force of a full bodied check, sending him to the ground. Looking up, he saw the missing drone taking (Name) over the edge of the cliff, continuing to fly through the air. On instinct, she shot her gun at any and all angles she could. A few of the bullets managed to hit the drone's control center, short circuiting it.  
  
   Sparks flew as the drone began spiraling diagonally downward and out of sight. Clint, who had been laying there watching it all unfold, scrambled to the edge. He looked over, hoping to see her make some unbelievable escape from the drone's literal iron grip. Most people wouldn't have seen anything, but with his sharp vision, he saw two the two small figures fall into the lake that was positioned about 30 feet from the mountain with a splash.

  
   Without realizing, Clint yelled, "(Name)!"  
  
   At his yell, the others came running. Once they reached him, they looked around and tried to piece together the situation. "Clint, what's going on? What happened?" Steve asked after coming up with no conclusions.  
  
   "That drone came out of nowhere. I didn't see it. She pushed me out of the way before it could hit me," Clint stood up now, but was still staring at the spot where she went down, hoping to see her pop up.  
  
   "Where's (Name)?" Natasha questioned, now noticing she was nowhere to be seen.

  
   "The drone... it took her over the edge, and... and they went into the lake," he was having a hard time not panicking.  
  
   "Are you alright?" Thor asked, noticing the strange look on Clint's face.  
  
   "She still hasn't come up."  
  
   He didn't even need to elaborate. The others knew exactly what he meant by those words. Steve immediately went into action, "(Name), do you copy?" he waited for a response, but was only met with silence, "(Name). Do you copy?"  
  
   "Her comm. must have short circuited when she hit the water," Natasha mused, not wanting to believe anything but.  
  
   "Someone needs to get her. She's been down for about three minutes now," Clint stated.  
  
   "Maybe brother Anthony can retrieve Lady (Name)," Thor suggested.  
  
   "Good thinking Thor!" Steve began trying to get Tony's attention, "Tony? We need your help. Something's happened."  
  
   "What happened?" Tony's voice came through.  
  
   "That drone we were looking for? It got (Name)."  
  
   "What?" Tony exclaimed.  
  
   "It pushed her in to the lake. We need you to get her out before she drowns," Steve stated, all business now.  
  
   "On it," After this was said, the other Avengers looked up to see Tony fly above them and head toward the lake. From a distance, the others watched as the red blur of Tony's suit plunged into the lake. The silence that followed was tense. Everyone was on high alert, waiting to see or hear anything about their friend. "Shit!" Tony hissed.  
  
   Steve's hand instantly went to the comm. in his ear, "What is it, Tony?"  
  
   "Her leg's trapped underneath the drone."  
  
   Their stomachs dropped. The shocked silence didn't last long, for Steve knew time was of the essence, "Can you- Can you move it?"  
  
   "In the process of doing so, Cap," Tony replied, his voice sounding slightly strained.  
  
   "What's going on?" Everyone turned to the new voice. It was Bruce, holding up his pants, which had yet to shrink back down.  
  
   "Steve, I'd call medical," Tony's voice interrupted, "The water's like 35 degrees."  
  
   "Clint-"  
  
   "Already on it, Cap," Clint responded before turning around and rapidly talking into his comm.  
  
   "Steve, what is going on?" Bruce asked again.  
  
   "One of the drones knocked (Name) into the lake. Tony's trying to pull her out now," Steve told him.  
  
   "You guys should get down here," Tony's voice came through the comm., sounding grave.  
  
   "What is it?" Steve asked, already taking off with the others following behind him.  
  
   "She's not moving."  
  
   "So?"  
  
   "If she's not moving, it's not likely she's breathing," Tony stated, not liking that statement at all.  
  
   Steve paled. He began moving faster, breaking into a full on sprint. The others were calling behind him, but he ignored them, making his way towards the lake. As soon as he got there, he saw Tony's suit rising out of the lake, a limp form under his arm. It took Steve only a minute to realize it was (Name). The others soon joined Steve on the lake's shore as Tony landed, adjusting his hold on (Name) so she was cradled in his arms. He ran toward Steve and vice versa, which quickly closed the distance between the two. The two met in the middle, both dropping to their knees. Tony set (Name)'s waterlogged body onto the gravely sand.  
  
   Her appearance is something that will probably haunt their nightmares for a long while. Her skin was white, almost translucent looking with the way her wet skin glistened. Her lips were a purple blue that indicated both lack of oxygen and possible hypothermia. If her appearance wasn't enough to shock them, her stillness pushed them over the edge. Her muscles were usually tensed and ready for anything, but now they were lax. Nothing about her was moving. Not even her chest, which should have been involuntarily moving with the life preserving function of breathing, but wasn't.  
  
   Steve immediately began CPR, which leads to where they are currently. It's now been almost ten minutes since she's been pulled out, and nothing has changed, let alone improved. If anything, thinks looked even more bleak.  
  
   "Where are the medics?" Steve asked, still frantically pushing onto her chest.

  
   "The terrain is making it hard for them to get here. They're still about ten minutes out," Clint stated stiffly, watching Steve's movements like a hawk (pun absolutely intended).

  
   "We don't even have five!" he shouted, "Come on, (Name)... Come on, wake up."  
  
   Bruce sighed, "Look, Steve, it's been over ten minutes. It's not likely she'll come back. Even if she does, she'll most likely be brain-"  
  
   A choking noise cut him off. (Name)'s face was scrunched up in pain as she continued to cough. Before anyone could tell him to, Steve sat her upright. She continued to cough, her breaths coming in gasping gulps. It was then that her bodily instinct took over. What bodily instinct? The bodily instinct to purge itself of any foreign substances. She brought up, what looked to be, cups worth of clear liquid that could only be lake water. After, what felt like, a few long minutes of this, she finally stopped, only returning to the task of taking in large amounts of the precious element oxygen.  
  
   "(Name)!" Steve exclaimed, relieved.  
  
   "JARVIS says her vitals are kind of messed up. From what I'm reading, it's a miracle that she hasn't gone into any sort of arrest," Tony stated.  
  
   It was then that the medics decided to make an appearance. They ran to the shoreline, where they were briefed by Steve. About five minutes later, (Name) was wrapped up as well as hooked up to oxygen and various monitors, and was whisked away on a stretcher.  
  
~~ Time Skip ~~  
  
   (Name) spent the better part of two weeks in the recovery ward of SHIELD medical. During this time, she had any and all excess fluid removed from her lungs and was closely monitored for signs of either cardiac and respiratory arrest (though she was out of the woods by day 3 of the watch). She would have been released sooner, if it hadn't been for the illness that she'd caught from consuming the contaminated lake water. So she'd been put on a course of intravenous antibiotics, which she was closely monitored for any and all adverse reactions. She'd insisted many times that she wasn't a child and that she'd be fine at home. This, of course, was completely ignored. After the course of antibiotics was finished, she was released, but only to be put on desk duty until further notice.  
  
   After many a hijink pulled by (Name), with lots of help from Clint, she was immediately reinstated as an active member of SHIELD. No one knows exactly for sure why there was a sudden change of heart, but rumors said it involved a bathtub, a snapping turtle, and one Nick Fury.  
  
 **THE END**


End file.
